Potion of insight? what does it do?

Ruscoe

what benefit do I get out of having my wisdom set to 18? I know If you re a cleric you get more spell slots or smth but in my case my cleric has a natural 18 in wisdom. any other uses I can get out of this potion?

Glam_Vrock

You get better options from the Wish/Limited Wish spells with a high wisdom. Give them to your mages. If it's BG1, just sell them.

DregothofTyr

They can also help with lore for your mages/bards if you want to identify items.

Belanos

Wisdom also has an effect with any Will based spells, things like Charm Person, Dire Charm, Hold Person etc. The higher the Wisdom, the less likely it is that a character will be affected by such spells.

SionIV

Belanos said:

Wisdom also has an effect with any Will based spells, things like Charm Person, Dire Charm, Hold Person etc. The higher the Wisdom, the less likely it is that a character will be affected by such spells.

This still haven't been implemented?

lunar

Belanos said:

Wisdom also has an effect with any Will based spells, things like Charm Person, Dire Charm, Hold Person etc. The higher the Wisdom, the less likely it is that a character will be affected by such spells.

As far as I know this rule was never implemented. Same for high dexterity giving bonus to save vs things that can be avoided by fast movement. Only CON gives save bonuses for the short races.

elminster

Belanos said:

Wisdom also has an effect with any Will based spells, things like Charm Person, Dire Charm, Hold Person etc. The higher the Wisdom, the less likely it is that a character will be affected by such spells.

WIsdom helps with your lore and if you are a cleric or druid having it higher gives you more spells (also it helps you get better results when using one of the wish spells). Magical defence adjustment was never implemented and it has no affect on your ability to resist any spells. If you are getting this from the BG1 manual (or possibly the BG2 manual) they are wrong.

CrevsDaak

In vanilla BG2 there was a trick to make your CHA go to 25 after it drops to 0 (Rod of Terror + Ring of Human Influence), TobEx fixs that IIRC. Not sure if it happened with WIS too.

Syntia13

There's also at least one conversation (that I know of and am sure it's there and working that way) when you have to be wise or else you won't get the response option that allows you to progress. The game is kind enough to give you a hint - it says something like 'you don't know what else to say - perhaps if you were wiser...'.
This can be just as easily resolved by picking your wisest party member and sending them to do all the talking, but if you happen to not have a cleric available, then the potion of insight is your friend.

SharGuidesMyHand

Syntia13 said:

There's also at least one conversation (that I know of and am sure it's there and working that way) when you have to be wise or else you won't get the response option that allows you to progress. The game is kind enough to give you a hint - it says something like 'you don't know what else to say - perhaps if you were wiser...'.

That would be

the conversation with the friendly beholder who is guarding a chest in BG2. Theoretically, I believe you can just kill him and then raid the chest after that.

I've also wondered what practical use the insight potion has as well. As far as I can see, it only helps to increase your lore ability to identify items without spells or scrolls. IIRC, it only lasts for 6 or 8 hours, so you can't use it to memorize extra spells because the potion will have worn off by the time you finish resting to memorize the spells.

Blackraven

I think one dialogue with Solaufein regarding mind flayers depends on WIS as well. He asks at one point whether Charname/Party leader knows what an Illithid is. The answer options depend on WIS afaik. Not very consequential, but interesting.

Belanos

elminster said:

If you are getting this from the BG1 manual (or possibly the BG2 manual) they are wrong.

I'm actually thinking of 3rd edition rules as they are in the Neverwinter titles. I presumed the same applied to these games.

Jalily

Blackraven said:

I think one dialogue with Solaufein regarding mind flayers depends on WIS as well. He asks at one point whether Charname/Party leader knows what an Illithid is. The answer options depend on WIS afaik. Not very consequential, but interesting.

That one depends on INT.

SionIV

Belanos said:

elminster said:

If you are getting this from the BG1 manual (or possibly the BG2 manual) they are wrong.

I'm actually thinking of 3rd edition rules as they are in the Neverwinter titles. I presumed the same applied to these games.

It should have been in Baldur's Gate but it never got implemented into the game.

jacobtan

@SionIV‌

To fully implement Wisdom bonuses will be rather game breaking because high wisdom actually offers immunity to some spells, including several in the game.

Best to leave it as it is.

SionIV

jacobtan said:

@SionIV‌

To fully implement Wisdom bonuses will be rather game breaking because high wisdom actually offers immunity to some spells, including several in the game.

Best to leave it as it is.

I agree with that. Imagine 21 wisdom on a dwarf cleric.

jacobtan

@SionIV‌

Yes indeed. For the benefit of the reader, high Wisdom actually offers all these immunities:

Wis 19 - Cause Fear, Charm Person, Command, Friends, Hypnotism
Wis 20 - Forget, Hold Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Scare
Wis 21 - Fear
Wis 22 - Charm Monster, Confusion, Emotion, Fumble, Suggestion
Wis 23 - Chaos, Feeblemind, Hold Monster, Magic Jar, Quest
Wis 24 - Geas, Mass Suggestion, Rod of Rulership
Wis 25 - Antipathy/Sympathy, Death Spell, Mass Charm

The immunities stack, so a character of Wis 25 will enjoy all the immunities of Wis 25 and below. Imagine after playing multiple runs of BG with the same character, a character gets 25 Wis and he becomes immune to:

Charm Person, Command, Hold Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Confusion, Emotion, Chaos, Feeblemind, Hold Monster, Death Spell

Best to leave the rules as they are in the game. No point trying to force 3E rules onto 2E.

EDIT: These immunities are present in 2E too, so even BG vanilla is not a full PnP implementation of 2E rules.

SionIV

jacobtan said:

@SionIV‌

Yes indeed. For the benefit of the reader, high Wisdom actually offers all these immunities:

Wis 19 - Cause Fear, Charm Person, Command, Friends, Hypnotism
Wis 20 - Forget, Hold Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Scare
Wis 21 - Fear
Wis 22 - Charm Monster, Confusion, Emotion, Fumble, Suggestion
Wis 23 - Chaos, Feeblemind, Hold Monster, Magic Jar, Quest
Wis 24 - Geas, Mass Suggestion, Rod of Rulership
Wis 25 - Antipathy/Sympathy, Death Spell, Mass Charm

The immunities stack, so a character of Wis 25 will enjoy all the immunities of Wis 25 and below. Imagine after playing multiple runs of BG with the same character, a character gets 25 Wis and he becomes immune to:

Charm Person, Command, Hold Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Confusion, Emotion, Chaos, Feeblemind, Hold Monster, Death Spell

Best to leave the rules as they are in the game. No point trying to force 3E rules onto 2E.

That's :

21 - BG1
23 - Watcher's keep
25 - Hell (SoA)

For a legit playthrough.

Blackraven

Jalily said:

Blackraven said:

I think one dialogue with Solaufein regarding mind flayers depends on WIS as well. He asks at one point whether Charname/Party leader knows what an Illithid is. The answer options depend on WIS afaik. Not very consequential, but interesting.

That one depends on INT.

Ah that's a shame. Has got to do with WIS rather than INT.

Eadwyn_G8keeper

Could potion of insight be used to Dual-Class Xzar???

elminster

Eadwyn_G8keeper said:

Could potion of insight be used to Dual-Class Xzar???

Nope. It has to be a permanent change to their stats. So no spells, or non-tome items (including potions) can be used to boost stats to dual class someone.